STARVIN' SID MARVIN

Here goes..... The Early Years The first band that actually hit the road, following several aborted attempts to be musical ( including singing at a School for the Deaf !!!?? ) was the hilariously named Ask Somebody ..... .. " what's the name of your band then?” ..... ..how we laughed... Actually, this band was gigging 3 or 4 nights a week from day one and, once we'd stopped getting thrown out of places, we were regularly appearing in Miners Welfare Clubs the length and breadth of Yorkshire.... It's probably our fault that they closed the mines. Anyway, we got a taste of stardom supporting Osibisa at the Bridlington Royal Spa Hall, ( rocked the audience with our 3 rock covers then had to resort to our normal cabaret set .. for some reason the punters lost interest.... happy days.) and by the time Chris Crew left (who'd actually formed the band ) we'd got the bug and continued running round the country trying to cheer up sad miners, ( I remember introducing a song in A flatminor shortly after a pit tragedy - I always was a master of bad timing). We were called Tariff — sounds like an early attempt at money making. The next period involved us looking for a lead singer, I recall Billy Craven, John Lovitt ( ol‘ Ginger John ) and several others trying to front a band called Tarquin - a girly name but we did wear make-up and dress in strange stage clothes ..... .. ah, those knee length striped tights ....how it all floods back. We found the man... Keith Newby - still the best frontman l've ever worked with - brother of Steve Newby who is now singing with the Dangerous Brothers, (darlings of the local scene) and we became Jody, promptly putting the wind up the then darlings of the local scene The Brothers Band who ranked among their members Steve Newby and Karl Brumby .....has anything changed?? We'd now given up any pretence at being cabaret and were now a bonafide Rock Covers Band. Personnel changes inevitably followed, with founder member Steve Howell moving on to pastures new and being replaced with the legendary Wolf( Tony Houseman ) on bass and then, would be inventor, Johnny Downes ( who made me a wonderful voicebox thingy like Peter Framptons that you couldn't switch off and probably started all the spitting and slavering that's been responsible for rotting many an SMS8 ever since. ) Did I mention that the drummer through all this was my brother Rob Hampson - possibly the solidest sticksman the town has ever seen. I also remember Karl Brumby doing a bit of band hopping at the time. We did good, and apart from supporting the likes of Marmalade, Liverpool Express and Shakin' Stevens and the Sunsets ( ....nicked his backstagesandwiches in Doncaster - he became Shaky soon alter that ) we got our first taste of the recording studio and had a track Toeing the Line (an early J.Hampson composition ) released on the Humber Beat album (wronglytitled Towing the Line as I recall. ) Whilst gigging in the Scunthorpe area the band were befriended by a strange tall dark hairy hippy who often guested with us on congas. This was TerryWincott , the member of Amazing Blondel who blew through serpents andcrumhorns and the like and wnt on to be responsible for entertainment at theScunthorpe Baths Hall among other things. Well, Blondel (the latest incarnation of the Amazings ) were embarking on a British tour and borrowed our Rob and Wolf as a rhythm section. First gig was in London at the Victoria Apollo supporting a duo that nobody had heard of called Hall 8. Oates. Wolf got homesick very early on and in stepped .....you've guessed it …..Moi. (never played a bass before in my life ) On my first gig, WE were supported by another duo that nobody had heard of called Chas &. Dave. We had fun playing with the likes of Peter Skellem, Neil lnnes and Mike Heron ( Incredible String Band ) and inevitably, when I had to return to myday job, the die was cast ...... .. it was time to move on. Robbie (wife of twenty eight years and soulmate ) said I've got 50p in my purse, let's move to London.....so we did. But not before we put together a short lived but very memorable band The Six Pistons. This consisted of Steve and Keith Newby on dual lead vocals ( very new anddaring at the time ), myself and John Clay ( ex Seagull guitarist) on twin lead guitars, Johnny Downes on bass and our kid on drums. This was at the time when the Sex Pistols were being barred from everywhere and often played under assumed names. The A 8: R man who turned up when we played Sheffield was most confused. We were the most entertaining band on the planet ....... .. But I'd already made up my mind to move on. and now read on .... .. The London Experience " I've got 50p in my purse — let’s move to London " Robbie's famous life changing words. I'd already broken the overriding musician's rule — Don't give up your day job — So  in for a penny as they say. By means of friends of friends and currying favour through my day job skils, we found ourselves witha room in Redcliffe Gardens, Chelsea (West Brompton really but Chelsea sounds posher) under the proviso that it was only a stopgap. I nervously set about becoming a popstar without a clue as to what I was doing. I'd get to Fleet Street on a Thursday as soon as the Melody maker rolled off the presses and scan the musicians wanted ads. Weeks and months rolled on - I traipsed all over London and the surroundings auditioning for no-hopers that I didn't want to entertain, and , I must say, some incredibly gifled musos who saw me as the no-hoper. Confidence was flagging - I decided a proper popstar haircut was what was needed. I headed to the trendiest coiffurist in the area and sat back awaiting stardom. ….NEVER let another person have a free rein with your appearance… I think that was when I subconsciously decided to shave my head – any confidence I had left was swept away with the hair clippings on the barbershop floor. On top of that, the stopgap room stopped being a stopgap and, reluctantly we had to look for somewhere else to stay. Sanctuary was found with Ann Cook, wife of Amazing Blondel’s roadie, Grunt. Life with Ann and the kids, Krista and Ollie, was a lot more relaxed, although, with us now being located in Twickenham, the trek to Fleet Street every Thursday was a bit of a pain ( yes, I was still dreaming the dream). Sadly, Ann died just a few years later and, if we never said so properly at the time I'd like to use this space to say thank you to one of the warmest, giving ladies it's been our pleasure to know. Things started to look up when we were offered a flat in Victoria. Robbie got a job in Mayfair working for Sir Charles Clore and in between my fruitless auditions I set about decorating and making a bit of a home. Then came the phone call.... Would I like to work as backline roadie for Bram Tchaikovsky ? — would I l!!! Bram was from Lincolnshire and a mate of all the guys in Redclilfe Gardens that I'd got to know. He'd been successful with the Motors, just missing out on a number one with the single Airport ( I think the Smurfs kept them off the top spot ) but was now branching out on his own. The first gig was at the Lewisham Odeon as support to Rory Gallagher— my all time hero... Heaven! I may not have been wielding a guitar but this was Rock'n’Roll. Life became a bit of a blur after that, ...gigging, ...rehearsing,... recording ...and all the time rubbing shoulders with people whose names I'd only read about in the rock press  ..too many to mention, but one highlight was literally bumping into Mick Jagger backstage at the Rainbow when we were supporting Van Halen. Whilst all this was going on, Robbie bumped into the landlord back at the flat and admitted that we were actually subletting and so we now faced homelessness once more. .now a little lesson in why honesty and being nice to people is and always will be the only way to live. We cleaned the flat from top to bottom, ( Robbie's guidance not mine ) Robbie asked the landlord if he had any properties to let but to no avail. At the end of the month we rang him up, said " thank you very much, here's your keys, no we haven't got anywhere to go but we can stay on people's floors and if you do hear of anything...  ' One week later we moved into the basement flat in Redcliffe Gardens below the place where we'd been staying when we'd arrived in London... ..kismet! The whirlwind of gig. rehearse, record, rock'n'roll continued with jaunts into Europe, a British tour with Rory... (first name tenns now) and then a turning point when we went to Scandinavia with Suzi Quattro. Nigel ( Nash ), co-roadie and the guy who first gave us a hand up in London, maintains that it was Suzi who started calling me Sid. I was a bit punky in them days — still had a spiky mop even after the barbershop incident, and Sid Vicious was all over the papers. I'm fairly certain somebody else started it, but Suzi was definitely among the first to call me by it and I'm not going to knock a good story. We had a great time with Suzi and the boys — she even penned the ditty " Strangler in the night‘ after Nigel had a slight altercation with a bouncer at a Stockholm nightclub where we'd all been partying. However, at the end of tour party, the guitarist with Suzi's band stood up, had a proper slanging match with Suzi and quit. I'm still asked to this day why I didn't put myself forward and I asked myself the same question for years. Now I think I understand and it probably explains what happened next. I think that I only saw myself as a roadie and it was soon after that I got out of the game. Meanwhile, both of my brothers had moved down to London. I had a brief spell about that time with the strangest band I've ever been in. l auditioned for a punk band called the Streets ( not the one that's doing so well these days ) and teamed up with them after being impressed with their having played on the ‘Live at the Roxy’ punk album. I should have trusted my ears, ( they weren't as shot as they are these days ) — we were rubbish. The singer Ricky was a loud New Yorker being funded by his rich surgeon father. Franky, the bass player was from Rome, spoke very little English and needed 8 special brews to get on stage. The drummer when I joined was strung out, wasted and eventually found crying on Ricky's doorstep at 4'o'clock in the morning. Auditions for a new drummer were overseen by Julius, our shifty afro-cockney wideboy manager, who wouldn't allow us to know where he lived (  drop me somewhere near Harrods ..!!??) One poor candidate tried to mitigate his poor performance by the fact that he'd just been released from hospital after having a testicle removed. " You've got to suffer for your art‘ said Julius. The next drummer was French and spoke no English at all. I left  running.... Brother Rob meanwhile had taken over as roadie for Bram as well as doing bits for other bands. That was how I got the phone call — " can Captain Sensible borrow your Les Paul tonight? ' — the Damned had had their gear impounded and were supposed to be at the Lyceum that night. Another momentous call came when I was out earning a cnrst somewhere and Robbie answered the door to find Johnny Rotten standing there. " Can Sid drive our van to Heathrow? "  His new band PIL were embarking on their first US tour and I got the job of getting their gear to the airport. I spent an aftemoon with Mr Lydon ( as he prefers to be called these days ) in his flat and though I tried to get a conversation going I got the impression that he wasn't too impressed by the scruffy roadie he was having to hang out with.. The ‘gear’ turned out to be a couple of amps, a bass with no strings or case, various bits of metalwork and a heap of wires. It was about this time that I got interested in home recording and built a studio in the spare room — soundproofing it with stuff I found in skips (you wouldn't believe the stuff people in London throw away ). Brother Boo managed to get us a time share in a recording studio and the three Hampos attempted to put a band together. We started knocking about with the other musos who worked there, among them a band called Real to Real — they still remain to this day one of my favourite bands but they split alter the first album and an appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Keyboard wizard Alan Wilder went on to join Depeche Mode. Anyway the Hampos teamed up with Guy Downer. A moody clashalike singer guitarist songwriter and we embarked on a string of dates around Christmas time belting out punklike versions of rock’n'ro|l standards. We got paid off at more places than we lasted out the night, but on full money every time ( not a bad little earner really ). About that time our son Keir was born and juggling jobs, bands, social life and a baby got to be a bit of a strain. The Redcliffe Gardens gang was beginning to fragment - Bram, Micky and Lino moving back up to Lincolnshire, the Real to Real lads heading back to wherever they came from and lots of the usual crowd just moving on. Robbie visited Grimsby, saw how much easier it was to raise children away from the city and we decided it was time for us to move on too. I thought I'd " get my act together in the country ' as they say .... .. BACK TO MY ROOTS Was it failure or a fresh start? Both notions were running round my head, but I had left London on quite a positive note when I'd been asked to present some of my songs to a publisher ( I think it was ABC ) to be considered for use by Heaven 17s backing singer. It didn't amount to anything; I never expected it to, but nice to have been asked. Back in Grimsby, we lodged with Rob's ma and I set up a studio in the spare room. Within no time we were blessed with the birth of our daughter Ari, a tiny little bundle of happiness to make the family compIete .....ahhhh I heard the Woolly Trunks were looking for a guitarist, this was the remnants of Jody and a lot of old mates... I auditioned and failed!!! Undaunted, I got in touch with Sandra Crisp, a girl I'd met in London when her band , Aromatic Tors, had won the Grimsby Battle of the Bands and had played at the Hammersmith Odeon. We created a writing partnership, calling ourselves The Italics and started knocking out songs with a vengeance. They were good and we discovered that we were extremely prolific. Sandra could turn out words as fast as I could write the music and we produced some catchy poppy demos on my portastudio. Meanwhile I teamed up with old mate Chalky White to record a song he'd written for a Grimsby Telegraph competition. We won with Chalky’s composition ' Myopic Blues ' — I think there were only 2 entries but it was fun and we started doing more bits together with Steve Green and Paul McKay among others, calling ourselves Ham Gravy - later changed to Jam Gravy when the animal activists complained ). Sandra wanted a live band and The Relaxed Cats were formed. I also started teaching guitar around that time, so what with 2 bands and a writing partnership on the go as well, things were quite hectic. Out of the blue we got the news, Chalky had been found dead. The official explanation was that he had ingested ethanol. Nobody involved with Chalky at the time could believe for one second that he would take his own life... Conspiracy theories abound to this day. He still remains one of the finest Bluesmen I've had the privilege to work with. We quickly fonned a committee and organised a benefit gig at the Winter Gardens, managing to raise about £6000 which was put in trust for Chalky's daughter Jessica. Also about that time us local musos put on our own mini Live Aid and just for a laugh we reformed Jody for a one-off...…  ...good fun. Lots of stuff happening around then and l’m not quite sure where this bit fits but it is important .... ..’cos this is how I became Starvin' Sid. My relationship with Sandra had dwindled and at the same time the Woolly Trunks had fallen apart. We discovered we had a bunch of musicians with no lead singer. Someone had a brainwave  .The Shadows!!! Well l’m not particularly a Shadows fan but it sounded like it might be fun,plus it reunited me with some old mates, Keith Line ( Lino ) on drums, Karl Brumby on bass and Mick Stone on lead guitar. I was filling in the rhythm part. We became The Marvinettes. We got to the first rehearsal and something happened that I'd never witnessed before or since. We'd all learned our parts!!!!l!!! We struck up with Apache and I was gobsmacked - we were bloody good and probably down to having Lino on the skins , it had bollocks. Well, to complete the overall effect of this phenomenon we got suited up and adopted proper stage names. Not sure who was who, but there was Mervyn Marvin, Melvyn Marvin, Movin' Marvin and I just became Sid Marvin. Well it didn't take too long before our kid ( Rob ) looked at my still skinny suited self and tagged Starvin' on the beginning. I was now officially Starvin' Sid Marvin. We rocked Lincolnshire for about 18 months before it fell apart - oh well... Answering an ad, I started on a moneymaking venture with Mick Mager, a bass player I'd know from the 70s who'd just returned from working in Germany. With a mutual love for drinking and Frank Zappa, we formed a rock’n'roll duo called Dynamo Hum. Got loads of work, thanks to Mick's business head, drank vast quantities of beer and generally had a jolly good time. It was with Dynamo Hum that l first started to sing a few songs, I'd always been up for a bit of backing vocals but this was where I started becoming a front man as they say. When we got a bit bored we started augmenting the band with Johnny Fox on drums and occasionally Nick Skorecki on keyboards and Steve ‘Mudbone ‘Wright on harmonica, calling ourselves Maximum R&B We started knocking about with the stalwarts of the tribute scene — before it was even called that- Mally, better known as Raving Rupert and Maureen as of Maureen and the Freeways fame. Maureen coaxed me into joining her new seven piece outfit, The LA Band  - and went on to brow beat, hassle and nag Robbie into joining as a backing singer I dancer ( complete with Basque and stockings ). We did a complete Tina Turner revue type show and had lotsa fun up and down the country including a week long tour of the Northeast As ever, there was fun in abundance but money was tight to say the least. I came to my senses and went back to college with a view to getting a ‘proper’ job. In a state of complete disillusionment with the whole music scene, I quit everything — bands, writing, teaching, the works .... .. I was hanging up my guitarllll I looked in my diary and found I had one gig still booked, a charity event to be held at the Imp (a pub that had sewed as a watering hole on and off over the years and is right next to the football ground ). I decided to put a one—off band together for a one time only performance before packing it all in for good. Deciding to go out with a bang I put together an eight piece blues band and thinking that my old name from the Marvinettes sounded a bit like a bluesman, opted to call us "Starvin' Sid and his lnfemal Blues". The band was : Myself up front, Gaz Yorke on guitar, Karl Brumby on bass, John Trevitt on drums, Mark Gammon on sax and harmonica and Jack the Biscuit on percussion. To add a touch of glamour I persuaded Robbie to join in on backing vocals and dancing, along with Rae, one of the barmaids from the Imp. The gig was a roaring success - crowds out in the streets, people dancing on top of bus stops - a memorable night... .. But I was still hanging up my guitar. I believe it was Mark Gammon who insisted that it should keep going... Very strange as when we had a meeting about it, he didn't want to travel much further than his own back yard. Oh well — I was persuaded. Starvin’ Sid was born and has been going ever since. The rules remain the same... Have fun and no politics. I'm proud to say that I've stuck to that ever since ..nobody has ever been fired. ...Now read on. I was hanging up my guitarllll I looked in my diary and found I had one gig still booked, a charity event to be held at the Imp (a pub that had sewed as a watering hole on and off over the years and is right next to the football ground ). I decided to put a one—olf band together for a one time only performance before packing it all in for good. Deciding to go out with a bang I put together an eight piece blues band and thinking that my old name from the Marvinettes sounded a bit like a bluesman, opted to call us "Starvin' Sid and his lnfemal Blues". The band was : Myself up front, Gaz Yorke on guitar, Karl Brumby on bass, John Trevitt on drums, Mark Gammon on sax and harmonica and Jack the Biscuit on percussion. To add a touch of glamour I persuaded Robbie to join in on backing vocals and dancing, along with Rae, one of the bannaids from the Imp. The gig was a roaring success - crowds out in the streets, people dancing on top of bus stops - a memorable night... .. But I was still hanging up my guitar. I believe it was Mark Gammon who insisted that it should keep going... .Very strange as when we had a meeting about it, he didn't want to travel much further than his own back yard. Oh well — I was persuaded. Starvin’ Sid was born and has been going ever since. The rules remain the same... Have fun and no politics. I'm proud to say that I've stuck to that ever since ..nobody has ever been fired. ...Now read on. STARVIN' SID begins A week before the debut of the Infernals, there was a knock on my door and I opened it to be confronted by a leather jacketed peroxide blond punk who proceeded to take a harmonica from his pocket and bombard me with an assortment of blues riffs. This was my introduction to Tim Barley. I told him I already had a harp player. ‘Ah yes,’ says he, ‘but can he do a back somersauIt?' Mark’s insistence that we carry on with the band and his subsequent aversion to gigging beyond 'chez Gammon‘ meant we needed to recruit. Tim was the obvious candidate for harmonica (mind you, I'm still waiting for the back somersault ) but we were still short of a saxophonist. I'm pretty certain that I already knew her or firm may have introduced us, but anyway, the job went to Chez Nash, one of the most creative, enthusiastic, fairylike hippies I'm ever likely to meet Karl preferred to be a full time Dangerous Brother so Gaz introduced us to Stuart Land who joined on bass, Rae returned to the bar, Robbie augmented the percussion section with a vast array of claves, guiros, chains, shakers and the like and the lnfemal Blues line-up which would remain intact for several years was complete. We had fun and people liked us........ I don't know if it was the big line~up, the range of different instruments or the eclectic material, but we found ourselves doing some interesting gigs. I remember Beer Festivals, Blues Festivals, Folk Festivals and posh weddings being the order of the day. Memories and laughs abound: Jack tattooing FUCK FOLK MUSIC on his am when we played the Cleethorpes Folk Festival : me and Chez tap dancing down the Winter Gardens steps singing New York New York after the Beer Festival  Good times!! I don't know how long the lnfernals lasted but we had fun for a number of years. Eventually, Jack, the wild man of the band, started to become even more unstable than usual (love you dearly if you read this Jack — but, you know what I mean ) and after an eventful New Year's Eve supporting the Rumble Band we decided to call it a day. Forgive me if the sequence of events may be wrong here but the mernory's not what it was.... I decided that the 3 — piece option was the way to go and Robbie said " why don't you give Keith Line and Micky Broadbent a ring? ' Well, I know they were old friends but to be truthful I was in awe of them - I'd always considered them one of the best rhythm sections in the country, never mind the town. Anyway I made the call but added the proviso that if they were offered a ‘proper’ job they would be free to pursue it  and they accepted II! I believe we just went out as the Starvin' Sid Band, the set was rejigged to make it more of a power rocklblues thing and we rocked — well with that backline we couldn't do anything but, could we? I found myself with some free time and discovered that Pablo, a mate of Keith's had a studio that we could use so we decided to record a CD. For anyone out there who hasn't bought a copy ( most of you ) it was called All in a Day’: Work — the reason being that we recorded it in 6 four hour sessions ( 24 hours for those not to clever at the maths ) and even though it was a homemade affair I was quite pleased with it The inevitable happened and Keith and Micky got an offer they couldn't refuse. Larry Pratt, the local promoter teamed them up with an American blues genius named Greg Wright who was looking to make his name over here. Greg was famous for having played guitar for Michael Jackson on his Victory tour. Coincidentally, both Greg and Micky played in the " Hendrix‘ style -— i.e. left handed but on a right handed guitar ( impossible to follow if you're trying to nick a few licks ). Anyway, because of that, the band was to be called ‘Greg Wrighfs Left Hook.‘ Luckily for me, while the band was getting itself together, we managed to do a few gigs with Greg guesting on guitar. I remember rocking the Fiddler and being asked to come back the following week for some incredibly low fee  ‘ as long as we brought that American guy ' — even I've got some pride and needless to say we didn't go back. Keith suggested that I get Pete the Nose and Davy Dogood to step in as the new backline. I took umbrage at Keith ( mate and genius dmmmer even though he was ) telling me how to run my band, but it turned out that he was right and they were a worthy replacement We gigged along memly for a while then, in my day job, I discovered that I had three brass players working alongside me. ‘Aha! ' thought I... .. Ever adventurous, I decided that a big band would be a fun way to move forward. We recruited, Andy Grainger and Heidi Muller on trumpets, Neil Cottingham on trombone, Chez (of course ) on sax, and daughter Ari on sax and flute. Robbie agreed to return and rattle her bits and bobs. We decided to call it the Sidphony Orchestra. Although, relatively shortlived, we played some interesting gigs. I remember trying to play the blues on the back of a lorry in the pouring rain during the Spilsby festival .... ._ we actually got presented with a prize for best float — ha ha Then playing at the Spilsby Theatre — a very sedate affair in front of a seated audience, and the Grimsby Auditorium where I got thrown out and barred for fooling about with the kids (they're my kids - I'm allowed to throw beer over them... ) I think I'm allowed back in now - but I still keep it very low key. Well, Pete the Nose - who is a wonderful chap but totally ruled by his heart — fell in love, like he does, and though we all tried to tell him it was a mistake, he got well and truly messed up and decided to leave the band. ( Check out “The Man's a Fool‘ from the Blues in Black & White CD ) Anyway, like dominoes, one little move and it tends to make everything else wobble. My co-workers decided they were happier away from the spotlight and took the opportunity to retire — the rest of the extended line-up followed suit, We recruited Martin Cave on the drums and became a 3 — piece once more. We settled in to the local circuit and I was absolutely certain that this was the easiest and most fun format to work in... As usual I was guesting anybody who turned up with a harmonica, guitar, didgeridoo, set of spoons..you name it. Well, one chap kept turning up and followed us about for a year asking us for a job. I eventually relented and started a whole new chapter for the band. Marc Harrad was ( still is, actually ) a genius guitarist, totally different to me, also a very good vocalist and frontman... ..( can also walk on his hands ) The whole dynamics of the band changed with the two of us playing off one another and delivering extended guitar battles to enthusiastic audiences... good fun. Watch this space for what happened next !!